Mercer Mayer Week!

Mercer Mayer week wrapped up our famous authors month.  Just like Eric Carle, Mercer Mayer is also an Author/Illustrator. You may remember him from his book series featuring "Little Critter." Mercer Mayer began his career creating wordless picture books and many of his story books are based on his own life experiences.  The children gave words to the wordless book, "Frog, Where Are You?" and the story was just adorable.  I will try to post some words from the story next week!

We also read several Little Critter books this week and each child had the opportunity to create their own critter.  Many of the critters have already gone to their new homes. If your home does not have a critter, it will shortly! 

Can you believe tomorrow is May 1st?? I cannot believe how time is flying! During the first few weeks of May we will be introducing the children to our new curriculum topic, pond life.  The children will learn about the wildlife that lives in a pond ecosystem.  We will spend some time studying the life cycle of a frog including the metamorphosis stage from tadpole to frog.  We hope to find some tadpoles for our classroom as we study these fascinating creatures!  Also, if you have a day available during the next few weeks, the Museum of Science in Boston is hosting a temporary frog exhibit, definitely check it out! MOS Frog Exhibit Click Here

Play practice for the end of the year performance will also begin mid month as we prepare to wrap up another wonderful school year! The blog will be pretty quiet beginning mid-May through June as we don't want to give too much away!

Important Dates and Reminders:

May 2: May tuition is due

May 11-12: Picture Day! Info on the fliers that went home
May 21: May gathering at the Stone Zoo, Check Evite for more info
June 23-24: End-of-the-year school performance, more info to come!

Check out some pictures from this week!

Two completed Critters

Another silly Critter!

The making of a Critter

A little side project the children have been working on,
I don't want to spoil the surprise!

Happy beautiful Saturday! Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Joanna

Eric Carle Week!

What's extra cool about this author is that he is also his own illustrator! Eric Carle is loved by many and that is also true for our classroom! Whether it's the simple text or the vibrant artwork, the children are always enthralled while listening to his stories.  We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," "Pancakes, Pancakes," "Panda Bear, Panda Bear What Do You See?" (illustrator) and "The Very Clumsy Click Bug" just to name a few. Now, most of these stories were written AND illustrated by Eric Carle, however, Eric also worked with his buddy, Bill Martin, Jr.  Bill wrote lots of great stories and Eric would illustrate them.  This worked out so well that we decided to make Eric Carle our artist of the month.  Have you ever noticed the beautiful artwork in any of his books? Eric mostly used tissue paper cuttings to create animals, people and the scenery in his stories and many others.  So, the children explored this art technique based on the book, "Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See."  Did you also know that this book was inspired by the growing number of endangered animals in our world?  This book highlights just 10 of them, the panda bear, bald eagle, water buffalo, spider monkey,  green sea turtle, macaroni penguin, sea lion, red wolf, whooping crane and the black panther.  Now, this book was written in 2003 and I am very happy to report that the bald eagle is now considered recovered (no longer endangered).  The rest of this list is still endangered or critically endangered.  We briefly talked about how we can help the animals of the world.  Plant trees and bushes for animals to live in, recycle to decrease our carbon footprint and walk to nearby stores and playgrounds.  Let's all take the initiative to do our part!

Did I mention we had pancakes for snack on Tuesday after reading, "Pancakes, Pancakes"?!

Important Dates and Reminders:

April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break
April 24: April gathering at Rising Storm Training Academy

May 11-12: Picture Day! Info on the fliers that went home
May 21: May gathering at the Stone Zoo
June 23-24: End-of-the-year school performance, more info to come!

Check out some pictures from this week!

An Eric Carle inspired bulletin board!

A close up of the spider monkeys and the sea turtles

The beginning of the black panther

The making of a green sea turtle

Very carefully creating a panda bear!


I hope everyone has a fun, safe and WARM spring break! We'll see you all on the 25th!
Joanna

Curious George vs. The Preschoolers!

This month began our famous authors unit.  We kicked off the month with H.A. Rey and one curious little monkey! We talked about who Curious George is and what he is like.  We asked the children, "What does George like to do when he sees new things?" And the answers sounded a lot like our little preschoolers! For example, "he is curious," "he likes to explore," "he is silly" and "he gets into trouble." However, our preschoolers never get in trouble, wink, wink!  The art activity for the week was a step by step lesson to draw Curious George.  There were eight easy to follow steps and the children did great! Come check out the drawings on display in the classroom.  

As the week progressed, the children learned about acrostic poems and the class made one for George! An acrostic poem uses the first letters of each line to spell a word or name.  For example, the children made this poem:

Gets into mischief
Eats bananas
Often in trouble
Really curious 
Goes to the zoo
Expert climber

To wrap up the week, the children learned that George is a chimpanzee! In real life, chimpanzees live in tropical rain forests, are omnivores (eat plants and meat - mostly bugs) and have opposable thumbs like humans. The children learned about the characteristics of chimpanzees, including how they are similar to and different then humans.  Did you know that chimpanzees have larger brains then other monkeys? 

Important Dates and Reminders:

April 18-22: SEE closed for Spring Break
April 24: April gathering at Rising Storm Training Academy

May 11-12: Picture Day! More info coming soon!
May 21: May gathering at the Stone Zoo
June 23-24: End-of-the-year school performance, more info to come!

Check out some pictures from this week!

Some of the Curious George sketches!

A Curious George in progress

And another preschooler hard at work!

Have a great weekend everyone!
Joanna